by Lumi Laura
*
Late afternoon, her father went back to Bucharest and his pressing business dealings. Father Zosimos had scheduled the funeral for the next morning at the family cemetery alongside the gazebo. Her father wouldn't be there, but the rest of the family would, and so would Jaklin and Mikhail. They tried to get Alex to spend the night with them again, but Alex's nieces put a stop to any talk of that. Tears flooded their eyes with the first mention of her leaving.
Jaklin and Mikhail left at three o'clock with promises to return early the next morning. Alex saw them outside and hugged and kissed both of them. Jaklin was off to work at the ICC after all and Mikhail to write on his Russian literature blog. Alex felt jealous that they would be alone in bed together.
That night, Alex bedded down with the two smallest of her sister's girls, Karolina five and Anica three, who kept Nălucă beside her. They brought in a mattress from another bedroom, which they placed on the floor for the two larger girls, Monika ten and Maja eight. Alex recited nursery rhymes for the little girls until they dropped off to sleep, and then she and the two older girls whispered ghost stories until the witching hour.
Finally, they all slept, but Alex kept feeling the powerful love she had for her nieces and scooted up closer to them, knowing she could never have her own children. She worried about her grandmother and wondered if she was on her way to Heaven. She remembered her dream of the City of God.